What’s in a name?

Or to be more accurate

“What’s in a job title“?

You might say (and I wouldn’t neccesarily disagree with you)

“not a lot, it’s what the individual ‘does‘ within that role that’s important”

You might come back to me and say (and again, I may not disagree with you)

“actually, a job title ‘does‘ matter, as it (rightly or wrongly) paints a picture in other people’s minds as to what you do and may often be the first thing that somebody discovers about you”

Which brings me nicely to the job title ‘Instructional Designer’.

Really?

Does anybody, anywhere be it in the vendor, client or DIY community really Design Instruction anymore?

Really?

Surely we are all about creating an environment, be it physical, digital or virtual (or what the hell, a combination) in which to facilitate learning, aren’t we?

My organisation moved away from calling its trainers ‘trainers’ a few years ago and now they are called Learning Facilitators – sure it’s just a title but look at the difference between the two…..

…. they send out very different messages don’t they?

So why in the eLearning community do we use the term Instructional Designer?

Now that’s not a rhetorical questions. Regular readers will know that I am a self-confessed newbie in this field and I am genuinely interested as to why this title exists.

Is it a throw back to the early days of eLearning where we ‘did’ Design Instruction or is there some other reason that has passed me by?

If you know (or even if you don’t but agree or disagree with what I am asking) then please drop a response in the comments box below.

Image source.

View the original article here